Main to naachoongee haan main to gaaoongee
Posted on: May 26, 2025
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
|
Blog Day : |
6156 | Post No. : | 19013 |
Today’s song is from a Bilingual film – Nagad Narayan-1943.
NAGAD NARAYAN (1943) was produced in Hindi and Marathi by Baburao Pendharkar under the banner of New Huns Pictures. The Marathi title of the film was ‘Paisa Bolto Aahe’ (1943). Both the versions of the films were directed by Vishram Bedekar. The star cast in the Hindi version included Leela Desai, Baburao Pendharkar, Kusum Deshpande, Nayampalli, Masood, Pratima Devi, Shakir etc.
The story of the film was an allegory about the social and economic conditions in undivided India in the background of World War-II. The gist of the story of the film sourced from Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema is as under:
Bapuji is an agent for the Rangoon Oil Company. During the war period, he made money through black marketing of the products. But his daughter Vidya (Leela Desai) believes in her father’s honesty.
Vidya meets a young man whom she dislikes as she believes that he does not seem to be from her own social class. But the man turns out to be Lalnath (Baburao Pendharkar), one of the directors of the Rangoon Oil Company. When the Japanese attack Pearl Harbour, Bapuji seizes the opportunity to make quick money. Lalnath orders an inquiry into Bapuji’s accounts. However, the rest of the directors of the Company oppose Lalnath’s action and start doubting his honesty. He was sacked as director of the Rangoon Oil Company.
Eventually, the rest of the directors are driven out of the country by the invading Japanese. Ultimately the truth is out and Lalnath proves his honesty. Vidya falls in love with Lalnath.
Film Nagad Narayan was a bilingual film made in Hindi and Marathi (with a title of ‘ पैसा बोलतो आहे ‘ means The money is talking ). When this film was made by Baburao Pendharkar, its owner, the company had a lot of financial difficulties. This film was not very successful. The next film made by Baburao was ” Draupadi-1944″. That film also failed and the banner New Huns pictures had to be closed down.
Marathi was the first language to make bilingual Talkie films regularly since 1932. The very first Marathi Talkie film- अयोध्येचा राजा , was also made in Hindi as Ayodhya ka Raja, simultaneously. This was purely a business move on the part of Marathi film makers. Though the Marathi film industry was growing by the day, it also wanted to capture the biggest All India Hindi market.
This was followed by the Bengal film industry and every successful Bengali film was remade in Hindi or was simultaneously made bilingual in Bangla and Hindi. By this, not only the filmmakers were benefited, but the audience of All India was also enjoying the feast of the best of Bangla and Marathi films. One offshoot of this bilingual game was that many Marathi artistes – actors, directors and MDs and singers also entered the Hindi films. Thus along with the audiences, the industries also benefited by this activity.
In due course of time i.e. by 1948, the Southern film industry too entered this fray of Multilingual films. In the South, the trend was to make films in 3 or more languages at the same time or make their remakes later in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi. Comparatively Malayalam and Kannada film industries were late to play this multilingual game. By the decade of 1950, the Marathi and Bangla film industries had their own playing fields in sufficiently big size and they reduced making bilingual films. The South took the advantage and continued making films in Hindi even in the from the 50’s to the end of the 70’s decades. Later on Dubbing the Southern films became cheaper and more frequent than making bilingual or remaking the films in Hindi.
Because of the Bilingual system of Marathi and Hindi films, many Music Directors from Marathi entered Hindi films. MDs like Dada Chandekar, Govindrao Tembe, Keshavrao Bhole, S.P.Rane, Prof. B.R.Deodhar, Baurao ketkar, Annasaheb Mainkar, K.R.Gore, Master krishnarao, Datta Korgaonkar (K.Datta) etc gave music to early Hindi films. It was followed by Vasant Desai, Datta Davjekar, Snehal Bhatkar, Sudhir Phadke etc etc.
There were many small-time MDs from Marathi films like C.Balaji aka Balaji Chaugule-for example, who remained unknown. In this rush and jumble of competition for survival few really meritorious but commercially unsuccessful Music Directors appeared like Comets and disappeared.
Shridhar Parsekar, composer of today’s film, was one such Gem, who had immense talent but insufficient Luck. And when he became famous and in demand for his music, he fell victim of Alcohol and embraced death in very pitiable conditions. Since I have already written twice about Shridhar Parsekar and Sadanand Kamath ji once on this Blog, I am not repeating it here now.
The Heroine of this film was Leela Desai – who was one of the “SNC” pair of Leela (Desai) V/s Leela (Chandragiri). Leela Desai was the daughter of Dr. Umedbhai Lalbhai Desai-a Gujarati and his wife Satyabala Devi- a Bengali from Bihar, who was a famous and prominent singer of the 1930s. She was born on 1-1-1909 in Newark, New Jersey, America, where her parents had gone for a 3 year work trip. She grew up in India. She learnt dancing from Amla Devi-who married Uday shanker, as well as from Lachhu Maharaj and Sohan lal. She also learnt music at Marris College , Lucknow.
Leela Desai was the 4th of the 5 children born to Dr Umedram Desai from Gujarat and Satybala Devi, daughter of a Bengali landlord settled in Bihar. It was a second marriage for both of them as Satyabala Devi lost her husband during childhood while Dr Umedram Desai got married to his first wife in his childhood through whom he had two sons. Later, Dr Umedram Desai married Gunobati Mitter, a Bengali Christian, for the third time with whom he had 6 children. Before her marriage, Gunobati Mitter worked as a tutor for the children of Dr Umedram Desai and Satyabala Devi in Rampur. So apart from her own 4 siblings, Leela Desai had 8 step brothers/sisters.
Leela Desai was trained in the Bhatkhande Music Institute established in Lucknow in 1926. It has played a vital role in training generations of performing artistes, dedicated gurus and gifted composers…Lucknow has contributed music directors, (like Naushad, Madan Mohan, Roshan), actors and actresses (like Kumar, Iftekar, Akhtari Bai, Bina Rai, Yashodhara Katju, Swaranlata), singers (Talat Mahmud, Anup Jalota, Dilraj Kaur, Krishna Kalle), writers (like Amritlal Nagar, Bhagawati Sharan Varma, Achala Nagar), lyricists and dancers. Lachhu Maharaj was a very successful choreographer for many films. Pahadi Sanyal, Leela Desai and Kamlesh Kumari of New Theatres at Calcutta were all trained here.
In one of her stage performances in Lucknow, NT’s Director Hem Chander saw her and invited her to Calcutta for work in films. She worked in the film President-37 as the sister of Kamlesh Kumari, opposite Saigal. It was followed by Vidyapati-37, Dushman-38, Kapal kundala-39 and Nartaki-40. She also did Adarsh Mahila-37 with Ideal Film company.
Leela Desai had been invited by the students of the Intermediate College in 1941. Bangalore had the distinction of holding festivals of films made by New Theatres’ and Prabhat Film Co.
B.N. Sircar’s empire introduced personalities of the stature of P.C. Barua, Bimal Roy, Debaki Bose, Leela Desai, Phani Majumdar, Timir Baran, Umashashi, Nitin Bose, K.. Saigal, Pankaj Mullick, Nemo, Sisir Kumar Bhaduri and Jamuna, all of whom later earned all India fame, under the banner of New Theatres. Among his technical achievements were the bringing of sound to Calcutta for Bengali films, and the introduction of the playback system. The elephant logo of New Theatres acted as a magnet to draw crowds throughout the country.
Chimanlal Trivedi brought her to Bombay to act opposite Jairaj in the film Tamanna-42. She acted in 5 films of Chimanlal Trivedi. After tamanna, Leela Desai acted in films like Sharafat,Paraya Dhan, Nagad Narayan,Inkaar, Mujrim, Miss Devi,Kaliyan, Meghdoot,Maharani Minal Devi,Magadhraj,Kamla, Dev kanya, Soorat and last film Geet Govind-47.
She acted opposite leading actors like K L Saigal, Najmul Hasan, Jairaj, Pahadi Sanyal, Surendra, Chandra Mohan, Khalil, Baburao pendharkar etc etc. She worked under top directors like Debki Bose, Nitin Bose, Kidar Sharma, Phani Mujumdar and others. Her sister Monica Desai ( who married Phani Mujumdar) was also in films. In 1944, Leela also acted in the movie Kaliyan with Ramola. Ramola also acted in the film Lalkar in the same year. In a span of just 10 years, Leela Desai acted in 21 films and then left films.
She settled in Darjeeling with her mother. Lila Desai owned a house in Darjeeling called “Lily Cottage”. Her mother Satyabala Devi lived there until her death. It is possible that Lila knew Manjula or Sumitra Sanyal in Darjeeling. Lila Desai is mentioned in Bollywood actress Sumitra Sanyal’s site.
Baburao Patel said this about Leela Desai…. “What shall be said of Leela Desai, who acted the part of the President’s sister, the mischievous school-girl, and who always took the active part in the love-making between her and Prakash Babu (Saigal)? I cannot find a single fault with her acting. She played up to Saigal splendidly. Even her eyes were most expressive. What naughtiness was in them? As a shameless hussy she could give points to any of your Hollywood actresses–and win.
In the love-duet between her and Saigal it was she who always led. She was the personification of Mr. Bernerd Shaw’s pet notion that, in this eternal amorous game, it is the woman who leads the man on and not, as is commonly supposed, the other way about. From the moment she jumped down her school garden-wall and almost fell plump into the arms of Prakash Babu, who was sitting below chewing the end of his reflections and his dismissal from his job, she never, in a manner of speaking, left him to himself.
She would bring down the house with her: “Uske bad kya hua, Prakash Babu?” The poor man had to dance to her measure ever afterwards. When she found herself with him alone she gave us the impression of having fed on honey-dew and on the milk of paradise. Then, in addition to her sparkling dialogue and supremely ‘alive’ acting, she was gorgeous in her dancing performance. Her whole face was a mirror in which her thoughts were reflected. She was an imp of mischief from commencement to conclusion.”
Today’s song is sung by Rajkumari. Enjoy this 82 year old song by the then 25 year old Rajkumari Banaraswali….
Song- Main to naachoongee (Nagad Narayan)(1943) Singer- Rajkumari, Lyricist- Kavi Bekal, MD- Shridhar Parsekar
Lyrics
Main to naachoongee
haan main to gaaoongee
ho main to pahnoongee Bharat ka ??
Bharat mein jeewan bitaaungee
haan haan Bharat kee betee kahaaungee
haan main to naachoongee
haan main to gaaoongee
haan main to pahnoongee Bharat ka ??
Bharat mein jeewan bitaaungee
haan haan Bharat kee betee kahaaungee
haan main to naachoongee
chale jaa ree asha tujhse naheen boloongee
chale jaa ree asha tujhse naheen boloongee
tujhse naheen kheloongee
teree naheen maanoongee
haan main to naachoongee
haan main to gaaoongee
haan main to pahnoongee Bharat ka ??
Bharat mein jeewan bitaaungee
haan haan Bharat kee betee kahaaungee
haan main to naachoongee
mere man mein
mere man mein base hain Kanhaiyya
mere man mein base hain Kanhaiyya
main unkee hee
main unkee hee ho ke rahoongee
main unkee hee ho ke rahoongee
pyaaree banoongee
daasee banoongee
haan main to naachoongee
haan main to gaaoongee
haan main to pahnoongee Bharat ka ??
Bharat mein jeewan bitaaungee
haan haan Bharat kee betee kahaaungee
haan main to naachoongee
aankhon se aankhen churaayeen
koi aankhon se aankhen giraanee
piya ye bhee meree kahaanee
hua ye bhee meree kahaanee
?? kahaanee
meree jawaanee
main to naachoongee
haan main to gaaoongee
haan main to pahnoongee Bharat ka ??
Bharat mein jeewan bitaaungee
haan haan Bharat kee betee kahaaungee
haan main to naachoongee
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
Leave a comment